Change ENVIRONMENT

CHANGE Environment is a project coordinated by JRS Europe and implemented in 7 countries – Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Spain and Uganda. The goal of the project is to educate young students on the issues of environmental change and human migration, and how they interact.

The three components of the CHANGE methodology

Critical thinking

CHANGE Environment, through a 4–stage educational course, aims to encourage students to think critically on environmental change, human migration and their interaction. It also aims to help students excercise judgement to distinguish facts from opinions, and to recognise prejudices, propaganda and stereotypes. In this way, students will be able to make their own, well-founded judgments. By giving students meaningful knowledge, experiences, encounters, and new perspectives, CHANGE Environment seeks to form young people who are ready to face and embody their role in building a sustainable society in which everyone is welcome and has the opportunity to participate.

Empathy

CHANGE Environment provides a platform for refugees to share their stories directly with students, enabling refugees to speak in classrooms, and to share their experience of living in Europe, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future. Through this platform, CHANGE Environment will provide a opportunity for encounter between refugees and young people, with the goal to foster a sense of understanding and connection.

Participation

Another component of CHANGE Environment is the Student Ambassador programme, which encourages students to get more involved and to engage in concrete actions, such as small-scale events, campaigns or service projects, to share what they have learned with their school or local communities. Students then communicate these experiences across social media using the hashtag #IamCHANGE.

THE 4 STAGES

Introductory concepts of Migration and Environmental Change

Critical thinking on the inequal effect of environmental change

Encounter & exchange of ideas with people with different background

Applying knowledge to take into action

The three components of CHANGE

CHANGE, through a defined 6–stage educational course, aims to encourage students to think critically on the subject of refugees and migration, to distinguish facts from opinions, and to recognise prejudices and stereotypes. In this way, students will be able to make their own, well-founded judgments. By giving students meaningful knowledge, experiences, encounters, and new perspectives, CHANGE seeks to form young people who are ready to face and embody their role in building a society in which everyone is welcome and has the opportunity to participate.

Self-awareness and self-esteem

Changing perspectives

Critical information

Changing perspectives

Critical information

JRS

CHANGE

Together all have a role to play in CHANGE.

CHANGE provides a platform for refugees to share their stories directly with students, enabling refugees to speak in classrooms, and to share their experience of living in Europe, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future. Through this platform, CHANGE will provide a opportunity for encounter between refugees and young people, with the goal to foster a sense of understanding and connection.

Another component of CHANGE is the Student Ambassador programme, which encourages students to get more involved and to engage in a minimum of two concrete actions, such as small-scale events, campaigns or service projects, to share what they have learned with their school or local communities. Students then communicate these experiences across social media using the hashtag #IamCHANGE.

Together – students, teachers and refugees – all have a role to play in CHANGE. Learning, teaching and sharing experiences during moments of encounter facilitate the changing of perspectives and contribute towards the creation of the society that we want to live in.

Discover our CHANGE ENVIRONMENT educational course

you can teach or learn for change!

Change ENVIRONMENT Partners

JRS Europe, together with nine national partners, is committed to making CHANGE
happen. The project CHANGE is coordinated by JRS Europe and partnered with
Associazione Popoli Insieme (Italy); Fundación Alboan (Spain), Entreculturas Fé y Alegria (Spain); Jézus Társasága Magyarországi Rendtartománya (Hungary); Fényi Gyula Jezsuita Gimnázium és Kollégium (Hungary), JRS Ireland; JRS Lebanon, JRS Uganda and Ecole Européenne Bruxelles II (Belgium). Learn more about the CHANGE Environment partner in your country.